Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Vol. 1

(aka Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa)
by Hayao Miyazaki

Synopsis
In a long-ago war, humankind set off a devastating ecological disaster. Thriving Industrial societies disappeared. The earth is slowly submerging beneath the expanding Sea of Corruption, an enormous toxic forest that creats mutant insects and releases a miasma of poisonous spores into the air.

At the periphery of the sea, tiny kingdoms are scattered on tiny parcels of land. Her lies the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom of barely 500 citizens; a nation given fragile protection from the decaying sea's poisons by the ocean breezes; and home to Nausicaa.

Nausicaa, a young princess, has an empathetic bond with the giant Ohmu insects and animals of every creed. She fights to creat tolerance, understanding and patience among empires that are fighting over the world's remaining precious natural resources.

Review
I debated with myself over whether this was obscure or not. People clearly know the movie more than the manga, and I rarely hear anyone talk about this manga. I'm going to say it is obscure. Now, if you've seen the movie, please, put away any ideas or memories that you may have about it, as these two are completely different stories. The movie makes "bad guys" out of people who are not bad, and completely misses the real ending in the manga.

This is a special series to me. It was the first manga I ever read, back when I first discovered anime and manga, and it set the bar for future manga that I would read. I saw the movie after I read this, and was very disappointed by it. Anyhow, Viz recently came out with a better version than the four volume series I read years ago. It's seven volumes, reads the correct right-to-left way, leaves the sound effects in Japanese (with a nice translation list in the back), and seems as though it's the original size that it was meant to be in. I have to say that these books are very nice, and I appreciate Viz putting so much thought into it.

As for the story, well, I have to say that Miyazaki does love his man vs. nature stories, and this is no different. It's a dystopia, where people squabble over resources, and fight amongst each other, even as the earth is trying to kill them. Into this milieu, is Nausicaa, a princess who doesn't act like one, who seems to have special abilities, and is clearly going to have some impact on this world. The funny thing is, her abilities are really down-played and they almost seem normal for her.

Many characters and places are introduced here, such as the kingdom of Torumekia fighting the Dorok Principalities, though such things aren't important right now. What is important is that there are relics leftover from the war that created this world, and people want to get their hands on them. What's also important is that the Sea of Corruption might not be the awful thing everyone seems to think it is. But only Nausicaa is open-minded enough to find out more about what's really going on.

Nausicaa herself is a really interesting character. She's bright, strong, courageous, in other words, everything I like heroines to be. She's fascinating to watch, as she's the only person who can bridge the world of humans, and the world of nature, and also, she's charismatic enough that people naturally follow her.

Final thought: I've collected this series twice, that should tell you what I think.